Leadership - Mean Joe Greene - "Their Life's Work"

I'm not quite halfway through Gary Pomerantz's tremendous book, Their Life's Work, on the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that captured my imagination as a teenager as I was beginning my football journey. I'm aware of the history of the franchise, but this book just adds so much depth and dimension to the Steelers rise from doormat to champion. Jerry Krause, a man I worked for and with during my tenure with the Chicago Bulls, created a firestorm during the Bulls dynasty when he was quoted as saying ''Players and coaches don't win championships; organizations win championships.'' Jerry contended that he was misquoted and that there was a missing word, 'ALONE.'  "Players and coaches ALONE don't win championships; organizations win championships." No truer words have ever been spoken about winning teams in professional sports.

Leadership starts at the top of any organization. The Steelers bumbled along for so many decades, because they lacked leadership and direction from their lovable and respected owner, Art "Chief" Rooney. Not until Art's two oldest sons, Dan and Art, Jr., became involved in the franchise did the Steelers have the leadership they needed to ascend to the top of the NFL. Dan took over the Steelers day-to-day operations in the 1960's and Art, Jr. immersed himself in the scouting and player personnel side of the organization.

Dan and Art, Jr. made many key moves that contributed to the Steelers dynasty:
- Hiring Chuck Noll in 1969 as Head Coach.
- Expansion of the scouting staff and developing a better system of evaluating and selecting players.
- Hiring Bill Nunn, Jr. in 1967 as a part-time scout. He would start working full time with the Steelers in 1969. Nunn was a respected Black writer with the Pittsburgh Courier, "the city's historic Black newspaper." Bill was responsible for selecting the Black College All-American Football team (my dad, Clarence "Big House" Gaines, was a Black College All-American in Football when he played for Morgan State in the 1940's) and had extensive contacts and relationships with coaches at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
- Making a strategic decision to not have a quota system in place when selecting a roster and targeting HBCUs as a source for that talent. The introductory chapter to Their Life's Work, "Reverie & Reality," features brilliant writing and analysis. "It was the truest meritocracy the NFL had yet known. The earlier dynasties, the Cleveland Browns of the '50s and the Green Bay Packers of the early '60s, had comparatively few Black players. (In 1960s the four Black Packers joked that they made up four-fifths of Green Bay's total Black population, the shoe-shine man at the Hotel Northland being the firth.) The civil rights movement brought change. A photograph of the Steelers at Super Bowl IX in January 1975 showed a roster with twenty-five white players, twenty-one Blacks, and the biracial Harris.
- 1974 Draft. 17 Draft Picks, with the 1st draft pick being the 21st pick, the Steelers picked four Hall of Fame Players in the first 5 rounds - (1st- #21) Lynn Swann, (2nd- #46) Jack Lambert,  (4th- #82) John Stallworth,  (5th - #125) Mike Webster. The Steelers also signed two free agents from that draft class who made significant contributions to the team. South Carolina State's Donnie Shell and Temple's Randy Grossman.

Another key decision was made in 1969, the selection of 'Mean' Joe Greene with the 4th pick in the 1969 Draft from North Texas State. It's obvious that leadership comes from the head coach, but equally important is leadership that comes from within, from key players. Joe Greene was that leader for the 70s Steelers. No better story exemplifies Greene's leadership than a conversation he had with some of the team's rookies before the AFC Championship game in 1974.

On Monday, an off-day for the Steelers, with anticipation for the AFC title game in Oakland building, a handful of rookies, Stallworth among them, casually asked Tony Parisi, their equipment manager, for spare boxes. The rookies were planning ahead. They would need these boxes to pack up their locker room belongings once the Steelers' season ended. If they lost to the Raiders, they would return to Pittsburgh, quickly box up their personal items, and drive home for the off-season.

Suddenly the rookies heard a familiar voice, deep and resonant, the last voice on earth any of them wanted to hear, asking, "What do you want the boxes for?"

Joe Greene. Greene didn't appreciate the lack of confidence their request for boxes suggested, it seemed as if they expected to lose in Oakland. 

None of the rookies answered his question. How could they? Greene's value to the Steeers was nearly as great in the locker room as on the field. "Joe was dynamite in that locker room," George {Perles, defensive coach} said. "That's what a lot of teams lack. They don't discipline themselves. They wait for the coaches to do it. When you have someone like Joe Greene, it makes it pretty easy for the coaches."

Facing the rookies, Greene did not yield. He asked once more, "What do you want the boxes for?"

Stallworth admired Greene. When Mean Joe spoke, there was wisdom, insight, and big-bodied intimidation. Teammates did not challenge or defy him, least of all rookies. Greene's leadership was unquestioned.

Standing there, with suddenly no need for a spare box, Stallworth thought, 'Maybe we need to look at this a little differently.'